Re: [racebase] Fw: Ellerslie - final day weather report

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 03:03:55 -0800

Settle down, Dave and Muz.
 
I am not trying to "push Aussie racing".
 
As a bit of background information, I spent seven years in Melbourne, in what now seems a lifetime ago, and I have a bit of a handle on what it's like to live in a racing-knowledgable society. Actually, New Zealand in the 1960s was a racing-knowledgable society . . . we lost it, they kept the faith.
 
For all that, I returned to New Zealand and prefer living here. I also prefer New Zealand racing. I'd say 99.5% of my annual turnover is on New Zealand racing; 0.4% on New Zealand harness; 0.1% (tops) on Australian racing.
 
These 3200m races which you claim are "part of our racing heritage and should be preserved" were a concept imported from Australia when they proved popular there. They were introduced (or, at least, certain of them were given huge stakes and therefore prestige) because they were (and one still is) wonderful ante-post betting mediums. When bookmaking was phased out in New Zealand early in the 20th century, the 3200m Cups races remained.
 
And for the type of horse produced in New Zealand for a good part of the 20th century, a 3200m race was a suitable distance. But those days are going; probably gone. If New Zealand breeders concentrated on extreme staying types, in a short space of time they'd be out of business. Here's one telling development in local racing. The Wellington Racing Club has dropped the second day of its midwinter meeting. We simply do not produce enough of the heavy-going sluggers to fill fields on three days of Trentham mud. There are barely enough to justify the meeting covering two days. They're lucky if they get ten horses per race and both the Whyte and the Parliamentary are shadows of their former glory.
 
The Australian answer to the dearth of out-and-out stayers was to limit the number of 3200m races run each year. This wasn't a deliberate policy. It was a reaction to the secondary 3200m races (in Melbourne, New Year's Day's Bagot Handicap for example) developing into little more than jumpers' flats. Those secondary events have one by one been dropped and each state now runs one major 3200m race . . . and they find that's plenty. The most famous, the Melbourne Cup, has to be pitched to international competitors to retain its prestige.
 
Now, while I'm not interested in Australian racing as a betting medium, I recognise that it is, especially in Victoria, a highly successful enterprise. And just as New Zealand builders, boatmakers, publishers, bankers, any businessmen you want to name, keep themselves up to speed by studying overseas trends, New Zealand racing can learn plenty from Australia.
 
And here's a very important point: You cannot compare New Zealand racing with "Aussie racing". Racing in Australia is conducted on a state by state basis; there is Victorian racing, New South Wales racing; Queensland racing &c. The legislation by which racing operates is state legislation — the federal government has no input whatsoever.
 
As well as New Zealand's population roughly equating to Victoria's, we share quite a few other common areas. And if New Zealand racing needs a role model (and it sure needs some leadership, some purpose, some vision) then Victoria is the logical place to look. Victoria has one 3200m race; the Melbourne Cup. And it's a beauty. Okay, it gets huge resources pumped into it to keep it in its pre-eminent place but it's undeniably the centrepiece of their racing year. Victoria stages two other great events each spring . . . the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate. One is a 2400m handicap; the other a 2040m wfa race. They sure as hell don't run another two 3200m races, despite the success of the Melbourne Cup. That race is successful because it is unique.
 
And if New Zealand were to take a leaf out of Victoria's book, we'd run one 3200m race a season here too. And it wouldn't be at Ellerslie. The 1200m starting point is a disaster area for kicking off a 3200m race. Because no jockey wants to get caught wide early, and therefore probably throughout the race, the first three or so furlongs are run at a farcical pace and very rarely does a true tempo evolve. How many recent Auckland Cups have been dinkum staying races? Bugger all, I'd say.
 
Not too many horses can take three 3200m races in a season. The New Zealand Cup has dropped away to become a glorified highweight; the Auckland Cup has the problems above; and the Wellington Cup (the best of the three each year) suffers because there aren't enough genuine stayers left by the end of January.
 
If the NZ Cup was run at 2500m and the Auckland Cup flagged for something more appropriate to the 21st century, then the Wellington Cup would become something to rival the Melbourne Cup for quality. But try and spread the talent over three 3200m cups each season and you get three ordinary races.
 
As for Australia (read Victoria and South Australia) and their "pony sized obstacles" . . . here's something to chew on. Some 30 years ago I was travelling by car to a Victorian race meeting with a Kiwi racing journo and one of Victoria's leading jumps jockeys, an ex-Kiwi. Talking about Oakbank and its famous fallen log, the journo made the claim that it was overrated as an obstacle — "not much more than a telephone pole" was his opinion.
 
"Try running at it at 30-40 miles an hour on a tired horse's back . . . it's plenty big enough," from the jockey. And he'd been around Ellerslie, Trentham and Riccarton plenty of times.
 
Take a walk around Ellerslie's steeplechase course and study the fences. They're live bamboo. Try to remember the last time a horse fell in an Ellerslie chase. Every year in the Great Northern the entire field gets around. Horses at Ellerslie don't jump over the fences, they jump through them. They might be sizable obstacles, but they are the world's most forgiving. As long as the horse rises two feet it'll brush through. I don't buy that overhyped stuff every June about the Great Northern being the "world's toughest steeplechase". They are all tough; and plenty are tougher than Ellerslie's.
 
Dave, there is a huge difference between "knocking New Zealand racing" and pointing out areas where it might be improved. You don't like 10-race cards with six maidens. Fair enough. But by making that statement, are you sure you're not knocking New Zealand racing? Those 10-race cards with six maidens are a fact of racing life here. I could give you your own advice to head for Australia, specifically Melbourne, because city racing there, every Saturday and public holiday, consists of an eight-race card with nary a maiden in sight. 
 
You don't state what your objections to bookmakers are, so I won't go too deep there. I just reckon that if you want crowds on course, give people a reason to go. And bookmakers are the best reason I know . . . way ahead of fashions in the field, anyway.
 
What else? Muz, if Cup day racing is the best racing day of the year, it ain't because of the Cup. Best races of Auckland's carnival were St Reims' win on the last day and the Derby on the first. Pick any one of a handful of PQ events and it would be a better contest than the Cup. Even the juvenile race yesterday was a beauty. Worst race of the carnival? The Cup.
 
And if farmers still conducted their businesses in the way their 19th century counterparts did, New Zealand would be a poorer country than Bangladesh. You don't plough fields with teams of horses and you don't milk by hand. No farmer wants to become a museum piece . . . no soundly run business in the nation wants to. Why should racing?
 
That's plenty to be going on with so here endeth the lesson.
 
Gil
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: rrupnz
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 12:56 AM
Subject: Re: [racebase] Fw: Ellerslie - final day weather report

Gil
 
Lets be fair here.
There are enough of them on trackside trying to "Push Aussie Racing".
Telling us when we have a good horse that it reminds them of some Aussie nag.
And the crap on Trackside when quoting a price of 7 to 3,
We don't have "True" bookmakers in this country, ( just plastic ones ) and god forbid we ever do.
No, I'm not anti Australia, but we have a unique identity in the racing world----LET TRY AND KEEP IT.
As for your comments re 3200m races, I find it unbelievable you could even think that.
They are part of our racing heritage and should be preserved. 
Don't compare us to Australia---we are not, we are New Zealand, be proud of it.
And don't counter this with, "It will be better for racing", because that is just rubbish.
I have enough trouble coming to grips with the 10 race card ( 6 Maiden fields ) that we are confronted with now, a thing that never used to happen.
And you are concerned with 3200m races in this country  ??????
Yes, it is a good move to shift the Great Northerns, so long as you don't want them abolished as well  ( because Aussie have no equivalent with their pony sized obstacles )
I am sick and tired of people "Knocking" our racing here, and if racing is better over the Tasman, well, Airfare and housing are not prohibitive in mini America.
Anyway, season greetings to you Gil and good punting in 2005
 
Dave

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